The Rising Dark
by FTW257
Summary: Join these three new demigods and old friends in an all new adventure as they embark on a perilous quest across the country to stop the evil Earth goddess Gaea, from executing her most recent scheme where she intends to resurrect a being more powerful than any giant, god, or Titan. Full synopsis inside. OCs, canon, takes place between TLH and TSoN.
1. Author's Note and Synopsis

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

Before you start reading this, I'd just like to say a few things. This is my first time ever writing a fanfic, so please feel free to give constructive criticism and advice since I'm posting this mainly to learn how to improve my writing. Flames won't help and I'll just ignore them, so please don't waste your time. If you don't like the story, don't read it – simple as that.

This fanfic will be written from the perspectives of three different demigods (original characters) and the point of view changes every two chapters, it is in third person – the same format as the books in the Heroes of Olympus series and it is written in canon. The events of this book take place in between The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune. I rated it T, just to be safe, because it contains some violence and minor coarse language.

Now I know what you're thinking – not another one of those stupid baseless fanfics that has no plot, terrible grammar, and Mary-Sueish OCs. I've read my fair share of those poor excuses of literature. But I promise you, I won't disappoint you. I take my writing seriously. I've carefully planned out my characters, I have a pretty substantial plot, and I get friends to proofread my writing to catch mistakes I might have missed.

I have posted the synopsis and the first chapter and will try to update regularly. Hope you like it and once again, thank you for taking the time to read my fanfic! Please review, favourite, and/or follow if you like the story. It really means a lot to me!

_**SYNOPSIS**_

**Ariana was always the misfit.  
**She was labelled as a loner, the girl who nobody ever talked to – the weird girl who people always whispered about. Things in her boring, miserable life suddenly take a spin when she is thrown into a world of gods, monsters, and myths. Less than a day into this new life, Ariana has a nightmare which scares her even more than the insanity happening in reality. She doesn't know what it means, but she knows two things for sure: it's dangerously evil and it is destined to happen. When her best friend Flora (who also happens to be a goat girl) takes her to a place called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she is about to find out _exactly_ what that dream was about and more importantly, what it means for her.

**Daniel was always getting in trouble.  
**But now, he's gotten himself in the biggest mess yet. His whole world has been turned upside down and inside out when seemingly ordinary people turn into monsters that want to eat him alive. When he arrives at Camp Half-Blood, he thinks he has finally found a place where he wouldn't be seen as a troublemaker, but after a series of bizarre incidents, Daniel realizes that he's more than just an _average_ demigod. Some impossible possibilities are stirring around camp and people starting to believe just about any reason for the inexplicable events. Daniel knows that he needs to figure out who he is and why he's so different from the others, but nobody has the answers he needs. Now it's up to him to figure it out himself.

**Priya was always on the run.  
**Running from everything – people, places, monsters. All of this led to a life she didn't want. Her dad died when she was only six, and she was put in foster care, but one day something happened, which changed her life forever, and forced her to detach herself from everyone and everything in the world around her. Now she has been brought to a place called Camp Half-Blood and for the first time in five years, she is being exposed to other kids who are apparently like her. Priya doesn't trust anyone, except maybe the other two new half-bloods who showed up around the same time as her. She doesn't exactly fit in with _regular_ half-bloods either, but Priya thinks this place might hold the answers to the countless questions she has about the missing pieces in her life.

Join these three new demigods and old friends in an all new adventure based on Rick Riordan's bestselling series: _Percy Jackson and the Olympians _and _the Heroes of Olympus_, as they embark on a perilous quest across the country to stop the evil Earth goddess Gaea, from executing her most recent scheme where she intends to resurrect a being more powerful than any giant or god.

_**DISCLAIMER  
**_

I do not own any of the characters, places, plots, or ideas created by Rick Riordan from _Percy Jackson and the Olympians _and _The Heroes of Olympus_ series.


	2. Ariana I

**IF ARIANA'S LIFE WASN'T BAD ENOUGH ALREADY**, that fateful day in March had just made it worse. She was sitting at her desk in English class, staring out the window. It was dreary outside, the sky was overcast, and it was raining. She hated days like these, they made her feel so tired and miserable.

To make it worse, she had a test on a novel the class was supposed to read which, of course, Ariana hadn't even touched. Who would want to read something called _To Kill A Mockingbird_? The title was so depressing that she didn't even want to open the book. And on top of all that, Ariana _really_ hated English. It was her worst subject. She had dyslexia, which made reading and writing her worst idea of torture. And her ADHD was responsible for her thirty second attention span that made focusing on anything utterly impossible.

Ariana went to Académie Lysaine, an English immersion private boarding school in Montrèal. She wasn't smart or rich or anything, the school was for kids with 'problems'.

Did Ariana have problems? Yes. Major ones.

Most of which she didn't even know about yet.

She had been expelled from the last six schools she'd been to and never managed to stay out of trouble for more than five months. It was always one thing or another messing her life up when everything seemed alright. Most of the time, her life felt like one huge problem that she had to deal with.

Next to her, her friend Flora was nibbling away at an apple. Flora arrived at Lysaine at the beginning of their seventh grade year. Ariana guessed she was probably from outside Québec because her French wasn't very good. Flora always seemed to edge away from the topic of where she came from.

Chatter broke out and interrupted Ariana's trance of boredom – Jessica and her crew were snickering and flinging erasers and pencils into Flora's hair and calling her names.

Anger boiled inside her. Her fists clenched. "I am _so_ done with her."

"Don't do anything. It's not worth it." Flora said, pulling a pink eraser out of her tangle of chestnut curls. "Anyways, I don't mind getting free school supplies."

Ariana stopped preparing for a catfight, but continued to give Jessica and her friends death glares, while silently contemplating all sorts of horrible things that could happen to them.

Girls at Lysaine were demons disguised as girls – unbelievably perfect looking girls who had flawless skin and hair, and were filthy rich. Jessica, a snobby brunette, was the head of the 'popular' girl clique. These girls were mean and incredibly cruel, especially to anyone that was not in the social norms. Ariana wasn't surprised to see them teasing her friend, it happened on a regular basis. They left Ariana alone most of the time, but she wasn't considered 'cool' by a long shot, mostly because she was friends with supposedly 'uncool' people like Flora.

Flora was an easy target for bullies. Why? Well, first of all, she was small and scrawny – which was surprising considering the amount of food she ate. She must have skipped some years, because she looked like she was ten but was in the seventh grade already. She also walked funny, and had crutches, like she'd been permanently crippled in some freak accident. But that wasn't the case. Flora had told Ariana that it was because she had a muscular disease in her legs. Her crutches and physical disability made her stick out like a sore thumb. Ariana wanted to help, but Flora refused to let her pummel the idiots being a pacifist by nature. But Flora wouldn't let things get out of hand. Despite being crippled, she wasn't afraid to get involved in a cuss-off with anyone who dared to mess with her. Flora was her only friend here at Lysaine and the only person, besides Ariana's mom, who didn't think she was a useless idiot.

The worst part about staying at Lysaine was the fact that Ariana couldn't see her mom. Académie Lysaine was in Montrèal, while her mom lived in Québec City, which was a three hour drive away. Ariana hadn't seen her mom since Christmas which had been months ago.

"You'll see your mom soon." Flora said as if she'd read her mind. "Spring Break starts in a few days."

Ariana managed a half smile.

"This test is very easy." Ms. Komar, her English teacher, said as she handed out the test papers.

_Sure, you already know all the answers, _Ariana thought as her teacher began to hand out tests.

Now, a few things you should know about Ms. Komar. She was a tall, stern looking old lady from Louisiana. She looked kind of like a cross between a stereotypical witch and a strict pioneer teacher. To add onto her freakishly scary look, she had a heart of stone, cold eyes, and an expression that made you feel like she wanted to eat you. She spoke with a venomously sweet voice whenever she gave Ariana detention – it was as irritating as of the sound of nails scraping against a chalkboard. She came about a month ago, as a replacement for their old English teacher who apparently got some fatal disease and had to be hospitalized. If it weren't for the flowery dresses Ms. Komar wore and the pictures of kittens on her desk, she could look way meaner than she already did. Ariana swore she looked like if she came in a five mile radius of any _real_ flower or kitten, it would die on the spot.

Her teacher also enjoyed carrying around a pointing stick. At first Ariana wasn't sure if it was to use to hit bad kids with or for actually teaching, but since she'd never had it used against her, Ariana guessed it was the second one. And it didn't help that for some reason, Ms. Komar absolutely despised Ariana. When the ugly old bat first saw her, she looked at Ariana like she was a month old mouldy sandwich in a trashcan. Unfortunately, that look still hadn't changed.

Ariana sighed as Ms. Komar placed the English test in front of her. She picked up her pencil and wrote her name at the top – not that it would matter whether Ms. Komar knew it was hers or not. There was a 100% chance she was going to fail. She squinted as she tried to read what question one said. Words started swimming across the page, letters spun around and flipped over like they were doing a gymnastics routine. She tried hard to concentrate, but she just couldn't. Stupid dyslexia. Ariana was starting to get a headache. Frustrated, she dropped her pencil and put her head down on the desk. She looked up and saw Ms. Komar, who had a sickly smile on her face that made Ariana want to puke.

She picked up her pencil again, and after three minutes of struggle, Ariana finally managed to decipher what the question was asking.

What is Scout's real name?

Oh joy, how wonderful. She didn't know the answer. How could she anyways? She never got past the first page of the stupid book. What a waste of three minutes of her time. Ariana could have sketched a realistic person in that much time. She decided to give it one more shot. After a few more minutes of headache trying to figure out what the little letters on the page were saying, Ariana found that this was a question she actually knew the answer to.

What was the verdict of Tom Robinson's case?

She remembered Flora telling her that Tom Robinson was a black man, who Scout's father, who was an attorney, was defending. And then Ms. Komar had said in class that the book was about racism against African Americans. Ariana guessed that meant that the verdict would be that Tom was guilty, even if he wasn't, because people are cruel, and it made sense – at least to her.

She tried a few more questions, but didn't know the answers. Others were just too hard to read. In the end Ariana guessed that she'd answered maybe ten out of the fifty, and she probably only got five of them right – if she was lucky.

Great. Just great. Another F.

Now that Ariana thought about it, the book's title was deceiving. There was not a single question on that test that had _anything_ to do with killing a mockingbird.

Ms. Komar came around, collecting the tests at the end of the hour. As she picked up Ariana's paper, she flipped through it, her expression worsening with each page she turned. Once she was done, Ms. Komar looked completely appalled and told her to stop by after class.

Within a few minutes, the bell rang signalling lunch time, and the students bolted for the door. Ariana, on the other hand, had an appointment with the devil herself.

Flora didn't leave for some reason. Ms. Komar approached them and said, "Miss Greengrass, class has been dismissed."

"I know, ma'am." Flora replied.

"I'd like for you to leave now." Ms. Komar said in firm, no-nonsense tone of voice. "I need to speak with Ariana – alone."

Reluctantly, Flora got out of her seat. She shot Ariana a nervous look as the teacher led her out the door. 'I'll be ok', Ariana mouthed back. After Flora had left, Ms. Komar closed the door. As Ariana sat there, she contemplated what Ms. Komar asked her to stay behind for – probably one of her usual lectures about how Ariana should stop slacking and put some effort into her studies, or maybe she was going to give her detention, or a conduct report. One way or another, Ariana wasn't suspecting anything to go _seriously _wrong.

Ms. Komar cleared her throat before beginning the interrogation. "You took it, didn't you?"

Ariana was confused. So she decided to do the safe thing – ask an innocent question. "Took what, ma'am?"

"How sweet, pretending not to know." Ms. Komar replied in a falsely sympathetic voice. "But you aren't fooling me, Ariana Fontaine. I know all about your mischief."

For a moment, Ariana panicked. Had they finally discovered that she was the one giving gum to all of the other students creating a mass outbreak of sticky undersides of desks? Or did the teachers figure out that she'd cheated on her math test by writing formulas on her wrists? Maybe they were going to take her mark away, or worse, make her retake the test. Still, the worst they could do was expel her.

"I still don't quite get what you mean, ma'am."

Ms. Komar let out something between a snort and a cackle. "Oh, you know what it is I want darling. Now just give it back and I'll leave you be."

At that moment, Ariana felt a strong urge to run. But curse her stupid heroism, instead she chose to stand her ground he confront her insane English teacher.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Ms. Komar let out a slightly maniacal laugh. "Tick tock, child. You're lucky that one of my sisters wasn't sent after you. Alecto, oh she would have torn your head off by now, or perhaps tied your limbs into knots."

Whatever joke it was that her evil English teacher was playing on her, Ariana wouldn't let her get away with it without having a little fun herself. Ms. Komar was messing with her and since two can play that game...

"Well, I'm not giving it to you." Ariana said boldly. "Now, if you don't mind, I would like to leave."

"I'm losing my patience." Ms. Komar hissed. "I'm warning you. Return the helm to its rightful owner or else..."

"Or what?" Ariana replied defiantly. "What are you going to do, old lady?"

She immediately regretted saying that.

Then the most insane thing happened. Out of nowhere, Ms. Komar started to morph into a – Ariana didn't know exactly what it was. She watched in horror as her former English teacher's eyes glowed red and her skin shrivelled to look like a brown paper bag. Her fingernails elongated to form deadly sharp claws. She sprouted a pair of black bat wings and her teeth (which were already disgustingly yellow) grew to become fangs. Her pointing stick transformed into a _real_ whip, that just so happened to be flaming with what looked like green fire.

There was an ominous silence in the room.

"You just made the biggest mistake of your life, darling." Ms. Komar said in harsh, raspy voice. "Now...to finish you off."

Ariana didn't need to be a genius to figure out that this was bad, _really_ bad. And since things never seemed to get better for her, something even weirder happened. At that moment, Ariana's life had been saved – well, sort of – by none other than her best friend. Flora, who'd left the classroom a good five minutes ago and now was supposed to be in the cafeteria eating her lunch (which was something Flora wouldn't miss for the world), barged into the room.

"Get away from her!" Flora yelled at the creature.

First thing wrong about that picture was that Flora didn't have her crutches. Ariana was about to ask why, but then Ariana saw something that made her scream. Where Flora's legs should have been, there weren't any. Instead, she had furry hindquarters of some barnyard animal. And where her feet should have been there were cloven hooves.

"I know this all must be a shock, but you have to listen to me very carefully. That is one of Hades' servants, she tortures people in the Underworld."

Hades? The creepy god of death and darkness who ruled the Underworld in Greek mythology? What did he have to do with any of this? Before she could say anything, Ms. Komar lunged at Ariana. She dodged just in time and crashed into a group of desks. A second late and she'd be lying dead in a pool of her own blood. Ms. Komar, who had tried to bodyslam Ariana, had slammed into some cabinets, smashing them to kindling. The blow didn't seem to affect the monster at all though.

"Come here delicious little demigod." Ms. Komar/the monster whispered in a snake-like voice.

Ariana winced as she got up, rubbing her arms. She was going to be left with some pretty nasty bruises if she ever got out of this.

"What are you talking about?"Ariana was trying to keep calm, but when you're facing a woman-bat hybrid torturer wielding a flaming whip, who also happens to be your English teacher, _and _you're defenceless – that's kind of impossible.

"Ariana, catch!" Flora yelled as she tossed her a small, sparkling object. "You need to use it now to save yourself."

Ariana looked at the object she'd just caught. It was a gold bracelet. "This is a bracelet." Ariana said disbelievingly. "How on earth is this supposed to save me? This doesn't make any sense."

"Ariana, calm down."

"CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT THERE IS A FREAKING MONSTER RIGHT HERE IN THIS ROOM AND SHE WANTS TO KILL ME?"

Flora flinched at Ariana's yelling. "Tap the bracelet."

"And why should I trust you?" Ariana demanded. "How do I know that you're not like her?"

Flora looked at her intensely. "You don't have any other choice."

Ariana wished she hadn't said something logical like that. Flora was right – she had no choice but to trust her. Ariana tapped the bracelet and a gold bow and a matching quiver full of bronze arrows popped out. She didn't have much time to marvel over them since Ms. Komar – no, Hades' torturer, was about to kill her.

"Foolish girl." The creature said. "You think you can kill me when you've never even seen a monster before?"

Ariana was about to retort, when she heard some strange music that sounded like it was being played on the flute. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Flora playing on panpipes. Grass began sprouting from the cracks in the tiled floor over which Ms. Komar was hovering. Ariana suddenly understood the plan. Flora would entangle the enemy while Ariana would shoot.

Ariana took an arrow from the quiver on her back and drew it against the bow. She took a deep breath and prayed that her aim wouldn't be terrible. She tried to aim, but that was hard to do when she was being hunted by a vicious monster that also happened to be able to fly _and_ was armed. Flora's grass was still relatively short, but growing at a rapid rate.

Ariana finally decided to let the arrow go and just see where it ended up. The arrow pierced a poster on the wall as the monster dodged it at the last second. She drew another arrow from the quiver and aimed it, but before she could shoot, the creature crackled her fiery whip. Ariana managed to escape just in time. The green fire started catching and soon, every flammable object in the room was burning.

All of sudden, the monster tackled her and swooped back to the ceiling. Ariana fell over, and let out a small cry of pain as she felt her leg come in close range of the strange green fire. It felt like someone was frying her leg in oil. She recovered quickly before the monster could attack.

"Oh you're a fast little one, aren't you?" the monster said scathingly. "But you cannot defeat me, for I am Tisiphone, one of the three Furies, Hades' honoured servants."

Ariana felt angry for some reason. A rush of adrenaline ran through her. "I am strong enough to beat you."

The monster, Tisiphone, laughed a horribly derisive laugh. "Or so you think. Come on now darling, let me end this. It'll be quick and painless."

Then Ariana realized that she could keep Tisiphone distracted by talking to her. As much as Ariana hated talking to her (in both human and monster form), it was the only option left.

"I think you've gotten too full of yourself over the past few millennia." Ariana said as she drew back another arrow. She eyed the Flora who was still playing music and glanced at the grass which had reached unnatural heights and was slowly wrapping itself around the flying monster.

"Oh, you foolish child, you don't even know who you truly are, yet you have so much confidence." Tisiphone said with mock pity. "Such a shame I have to kill you."

Flora stopped playing her panpipes, signaling to Ariana that it was time to make her move.

"I may not know who I am," Ariana said. "But I know that I can defeat you."

With that statement, she raised her bow and aimed straight for the monster's chest. The arrow went zooming through the air. Tisiphone tried to fly away only to be entangled in the grass net around her. The gleaming bronze arrow pierced her flesh and she screamed, dissolving into dust. All that was left was the smell of burning things and a thin layer of grey powder covering everything in the classroom.

Ariana found herself surrounded by the broken, flaming contents of her former English classroom. Her bow slipped out of her shaking hands and clattered to the floor. She was frozen in shock.

Flora ran towards her.

"You killed Tisiphone. Well, temporarily at least. Hopefully, she'll stay down there for a good amount of time until she reforms."

Ariana couldn't believe how calm Flora was about all of this. "I can't believe this! I'm actually going crazy! I should be on medication! What the heck is wrong with me?"

"Aria, calm down." Flora said calmly. "Everything's going to be ok, alright?"

"Oh god, wait, did that_ really_ just happen?" Ariana yelled pointing to where Tisiphone has disintegrated. "She just turned into that _thing_?"

"A Kindly One, hiding in the school." Flora mumbled. "I knew I smelled something strange."

Ariana was desperate for an explaination. She hated being caught off guard. "A Kindly One? What's that?"

Flora looked tense. "They've found you. You're in danger."

"Who found me?"

"Shhh." Flora began to pace around. She always did that when she was nervous, that and talking to herself.

"It's not safe here anymore." She said to herself. "I have no choice. I need to take you to the camp. I was hoping it wouldn't be this soon."

"Camp? What camp?" Ariana asked. "Look, I'm standing right here. Talk to me!"

"Ariana, listen very carefully to me." Flora said placing her hands on Ariana's shoulders. "You're in danger, and the more I tell you about why, the more danger you'll be in."

"But – "

Flora cut her off. "Look, I know you have a lot of questions about what's going on, and I promise I will explain everything, but right now we need to get you out of here." She paused. "Come on. The sooner the better."

Flora started walking towards the door, but Ariana grabbed her by the sleeve and stopped her. "Where exactly are you taking me?

"We're going to a camp for special kids like you in Long Island, New York." Flora explained. "We have to get you there as soon as possible."

Ariana felt offended. "What do you mean by 'special kids'? Are you trying to say I'm crazy?"

"No, Ariana." Flora said, waving her hands in frantic motions. "What I'm trying to say is...this has to do with your father."

That was just about the last thing Ariana wanted to talk about at that point. "Oh great. You're not actually trying to talk to me about him? He died before I was even born."

"It's not like that!" Flora insisted. "I'll explain everything later. Now Ariana, before another monster catches your scent and attacks, can we please leave?"

Ariana didn't want to trust her, but then again, she didn't want to be attacked by any more blood-thirsty monsters either. So she agreed mutinously and followed her out the trashed and burning English classroom into the hallway. Flora grabbed her crutches that were leaning against a row of lockers.

"You don't actually need those, do you?" Ariana asked.

"It's all just an act." Flora explained. "I need to have some excuse for walking with a limp."

Ariana had never liked her life, but before, at least she could say it was normal. After what had happened, normal didn't exist anymore. Average had no meaning. Reality went down the drain. Which pretty much sucked.

Ariana thought of what her mom had told her at the beginning of the year. "I believe in you Ariana. You are a very special girl. I know you'll make me proud." She'd just blown her chance at making her mom happy. She had probably gotten herself expelled – again.

But what Ariana didn't know was that she had bigger problems to deal with. She didn't realize it but as they left the school, her life the way it was and the world as she knew it were about to change completely.


	3. Ariana II

**ARIANA HAD A MILLION QUESTIONS** running through her mind at once, but she couldn't seem to ask any of them. The sheer shock of what had just happened was too overwhelming. She remained silent as she followed Flora down Rue Notre-Dame. They didn't stop until they were in an alley between two lines of shops at the heart of Vieux Montrèal, the old part of the city.

Flora looked around cautiously. "I think it's safer now. We've put good amount of distance between us the school."

Ariana didn't speak. She didn't know what to say. Was this a dream? Or a practical joke? No, it had to be real. Flora's legs sure were and so was Tisiphone.

Flora looked at her sceptically until she noticed Ariana's wounds and her eyes widened. "Oh my gods! I completely forgot that you were hurt!"

"It's nothing." Ariana insisted.

"But you're bleeding!" Flora protested. "Let me help."

"You've helped enough." Ariana said, waving away the offer.

"Please," Flora pleaded. "It'll be quick."

Ariana thought about this for a moment. "Suit yourself." She replied nonchalantly.

Flora smiled as she got out her panpipes and started to play a song. Ariana gasped in surprise as she felt the pain recede as her wounds closed leaving her skin the way it was before.

"H-how did you do that?" She stuttered.

Flora put her panpipes back in her jeans pocket. "Music, a lot of practice, and a little bit of woodland magic."

Ariana gave her a dubious look.

Flora chuckled. "All of this must be kind of hard to digest."

"No kidding." She replied. "So, how are we going to get to this camp place?"

"I was planning to take a plane in case anything happened, but this is much more serious than I expected." Flora said. "We're going to have to use a faster transportation method."

"What can possibly be faster than a plane?" Ariana asked.

"Magical transport, duh!" Flora said, as if it were the most normal idea in the world. "Fauna should be here any moment with the Pegasi."

This was getting weirder and weirder. "Pegasi?"

"That's not important right now." Flora said dismissively. "The Kindly One, what was it she wanted from you."

Ariana sighed with exasperation. How many times was Flora going to use words that she didn't know? "What on earth is a Kindly One?"

"Tisiphone." Flora replied bluntly.

The mere mention of that monster's name turned Ariana's blood to ice. "I-I don't know. She said something about...stealing a helmet, from her master. Whatever that's supposed to mean. "

Flora smacked her forehead. "Oh gods, I knew it. I should have known it was going to happen sooner or later."

"What was going to happen?" Ariana asked.

Flora ignored her – probably unintentionally. "After all, you're the prime suspect. If the other Kindly Ones or worse creatures are sent after you...oh gods, this really _is_ a crisis."

"But you still haven't answered any of my – "

Ariana was cut off by the sound of wings flapping and the neighing of horses. A dark shadow passed over her as a flying chariot pulled by two winged horses came crashing into the cramped alley. The chariot seemed to be newly constructed and had an open top. It was golden and carved with pictures. Ariana recognized some of the scenes from what she'd learned in fifth grade social studies.

"What the..." Ariana never finished her sentence, because at that moment a girl who looked like a replica of Flora stepped out of the chariot. Every last thing about her was the same as Flora. She had the same chestnut brown curls and frosty blue eyes. The only noticeable difference between the two was the fact that the other girl was taller and older looking than Flora.

"Wonderful job, Fauna! That was record time!" Flora checked her watch. "Fifteen minutes!"

"Well, when you said that it was an emergency, I did the best I could." Fauna replied. "So...who's the half-blood in question?"

Flora looked flustered for a moment. "Oh, silly me! I forgot to introduce you to each other. Ariana, this is my sister, Fauna. And Fauna, this is Ariana, the half-blood I was sent to protect."

For a moment, Ariana thought her ears were failing her. "Wait. What did you just say? I'm a..._half-blood_? What does that mean?"

Flora shot a tense look to her sister.

Fauna cleared her throat. "Maybe we should get going. You're not safe here."

Flora nodded in agreement. "We'll explain on the way there."

Ariana wanted to object. She wanted to scream at them for not telling her anything. She wanted to refuse to enter the chariot until they gave her some answers to her questions. But there was something about the way Fauna said it, the grave tone of her voice, that made Ariana know that she had to leave now or she might not ever.

She got into the chariot, passing by Flora and Fauna without speaking a word to either.

As she sat on the comfy red velvet cushioned benches she marvelled at the beauty of the carvings on the golden interior. Flora and her sister took a seat opposite to Ariana, making her feel like she was the one being interrogated rather than her being the interrogator.

Fauna whistled signalling the horses to take off. Ariana's stomach lurched as they took off. She regained her composure after a few seconds.

The sisters were looking at her expectantly. They were probably wondering why she wasn't asking any questions. Ariana knew it was because she didn't want to know. The truth could be a scary thing. She stared over the edge of the chariot to see that the landscape below was blurred. They were probably going much faster than an airplane.

"Can't people see a golden chariot pulled by winged horses zooming through the sky?" She asked.

"Mortal minds can believe just about anything but the truth." Fauna explained. Her blue eyes became stormy and dull, as if she suddenly remembered something dreadful like a dentist appointment or an upcoming final exam.

"Aren't I mortal?"

Fauna inspected her like she had a mole on her face. "Not quite."

Ariana didn't understand that. "If I'm not human, what _am_ I?"

Flora, who had remained abnormally quiet for the past few minutes, sighed and fidgeted. "You're a – "

Their conversation was cut off by a strong surge of turbulence and the sudden loud neighing of the steeds.

"What's going on?" Flora asked, her voice tinged with panic.

Fauna was trying to calm down the horses. "I don't know. There seems to be some sort of disturbance in the air."

Ariana looked around for any sign of the problem. She managed to find it. In the winds swirling around the chariot, something was forming – a dark, shadowy figure, vaguely humanoid – definitely bad news.

"That!" She yelled. "What is that?"

"Oh no! Not again!" Flora moaned.

"It's a storm spirit." Fauna said with disgust. "We must land. There's no way we can fight it in its domain of power."

"But we have to get Ariana to camp." Flora complained. "It's not safe to make any pit stops!"

"It's either land and have a chance of her staying alive, or bring her to camp dead." Fauna said darkly. "Your choice. You're the Keeper. I'm just the chauffeur waiting for orders here."

Flora seemed to be struggling to make a decision. "It's a trap, Fauna! I just know it is. I can sense it. There's something waiting for us down there. The _anemoi thuellai_ is just a decoy leading us to something worse."

Meanwhile, the wind spirit was starting to crackle with lightning.

"Uh, you guys," Ariana said apprehensively. "Sorry to interrupt your little tea party chat, but I think you guys should make up your minds quick cause this thing is about to attack and golden arrows won't do anything but go straight through something made of wind."

Fauna shot her sister a look that said 'I told you so'. Flora scowled and reluctantly said, "Ok fine, you were right! Let's land. Quick!"

Unfortunately, Fauna _wasn't_ right. A couple of minutes after they'd touched down in a grassy field, Ariana heard a strange mix of growls, hisses, and something that sounded like clattering of metal. She knew it was bad news so she activated her bow and braced herself.

"Can you hear that?" Flora asked.

Fauna's expression darkened. "It can't be good."

They turned to where the sound was coming from. In the distance, they saw not one – but half a dozen armed skeletons rapidly approaching. There wasn't enough time to unhook the Pegasi from the chariot so they'd have to run.

For a moment, everything seemed to slow down. Ariana barely heard Flora scream at her to run and couldn't move, as if her feet were stuck to the ground. The creepy animated skeletons were only a few metres away when she started running. Fauna shouted something about camp being only half a mile away.

Ariana ran faster than she knew she could. She'd never run so fast in her life. She didn't dare look back. The sight of the monsters was far too terrifying. Thank goodness she was a fast runner. She occasionally ducked to avoid spears being thrown at her. They arrived at the foot of a hill.

"Half-Blood Hill." Flora panted as they climbed up the slope. "Almost...there."

Soon, the trio had managed to drag themselves to the top of the hill where there was a marble entryway and a pine tree that was guarded by a sleeping dragon who for some reason was oblivious to the commotion around it.

At this point, they were all completely worn out. If the monsters attacked them, they wouldn't make it. And right on cue, the undead warriors began climbing up the hill, completely unscathed by the distance they'd just travelled.

"Hurry!" Flora insisted, tugging on Ariana's sleeve. "Cross the gate! They can't get in. You'll be safe there."

Ariana didn't need to be told twice. She entered the marble gateway and distanced herself from the entrance.

As the skeletons got closer, Ariana saw that they had greyish bones and dark voids in place of their eyes. They seemed to be wearing army uniforms from different eras: Canadian soldiers in blood red uniforms from the War of 1812, some dressed in Spartan battle armour, some wearing uniforms from both the Confederate and Union sides of the American Civil War, some had modern camouflage war uniforms. Their faces had fleshless grins as they advanced forward with their weapons.

Then came the trouble. Apparently, Ariana wasn't safe even in the camp. It wasn't until the legion of skeletons stepped onto camp ground that Flora realized what was happening.

"Oh no, not now." Fauna mumbled.

Flora stepped in front of her, getting into a football stance, probably trying to protect Ariana, but there was no point the skeletons had crossed the border.

Ariana considered their odds. Two satyrs with woodland magic and one...whatever the heck she was, with a bow and arrows – against half a dozen experienced murderous undead soldiers carrying an assortment of metal weapons, guns, and grenades. Things didn't look so good for them at that point.


	4. Daniel III

**DANIEL'S DAY WAS GOING PRETTY GOOD,** at least in comparison to some of his worse days. But it didn't last.

History class ruined it all. But now when he thought about it, there were a lot worse things that could ruin your day than detention for a week and an unfair grade.

"I've finished grading your essays." Mr. Briggs, his history teacher said. "Most of you did quite poorly. The class average was much worse than the normal. Though a few people managed to improve or at least maintain a respectable grade. I'll be handing them back to you at the end of class."

Daniel slouched in his seat and groaned. This meant that he'd failed – again.

Not that he cared. As far as Daniel was concerned, history was useless and stupid – in other words, it was complete and utter rubbish. Who the hell cares about what happened during the War of 1812? It happened like almost two hundred years ago!

The only reason why he was upset about failing again, is because that would mean he was failing the course, and then he might have to repeat the grade, which would not make his mom happy. Money was already scarce, and she probably wouldn't be able to afford the tuition. Daniel got to attend Castle Heights Prepatory School on a grant for underprivileged youth. But if he failed the year, his mom would have to pay tuition for him to redo it – and she did not have the money for that. She barely had enough money to pay the rent and keep food on the table.

Daniel felt someone tap his back. He turned to find his one and only friend, Eddie, who said, "Dude, I'm totally busted."

"At least you probably passed."

"Hey man, don't worry."

"I can't afford to fail anymore subjects. I mean, I'm already busted in English, and there's no hope of improving in that, thanks to my stupid dyslexia. French isn't much better. Math is impossible and I'm failing in Geography too."

"At least you've got an A in Gym."

"Yeah, but that's like the only thing above a D on my progress report."

At that moment, Mr. Briggs cleared his throat and glared at them. "Mr. Martinez." He said sternly.

"Yes sir?" Daniel said politely. But in his mind, he was silently cursing the old bald freak.

"Why are you talking during my lesson?"

"Why are you teaching during my conversation?" Daniel shot back.

When Daniel realized it was a bad idea mouth off like that, it was too late. He shouldn't have made such a biting remark, but it's not like he could control it. Daniel had his ADHD to blame for that.

"Daniel, please report to the principal's office after class."

Eddie spoke up. "Mr. Briggs, it wasn't his fault. I started the conversa – "

"I know for a fact that you did, Mr. Woodbridge." Mr. Briggs interrupted. "Hmm, I think lunch detention for both of you for the rest of the week will do."

Asher snickered. He was the stereotypical popular jock of the seventh grade who also happened to be Daniel's archenemy. His groupies followed his cue. Asher was the reason why Daniel couldn't ever play basketball on the school team. He was the captain of the team _every single year_, mostly because he was rich and his dad knew the coach. Being captain meant that he always made the final decision of who was on the team and who wasn't. Asher had always thought of Daniel as a threat to his position of basketball team captain (a.k.a. most popular guy in the grade), so he never let him on the team. Daniel didn't care about any of the tags attached to being on the team. He didn't want the title of basketball team captain or popularity or girls. Daniel just wanted to play ball.

Eddie flopped back in his chair and stared at his feet. Daniel looked at him with a look that he hoped said 'thanks for trying' and 'I'm sorry', but he doubted that one glance could say that much. He'd just have to wait until the end of class. He really hoped that Eddie wasn't upset with him. He was the only friend Daniel ever had in his entire life and he didn't want to lose him.

Daniel couldn't care less about being sent to the principal's office. He went there at least once a week to report whatever mischief he'd gotten himself in the past few days.

The fifty minute class felt like a whole day to him, the clock going extra slow to tease him. When the bell rang Daniel almost forgot about the essay as he bolted for the door. Mr. Briggs was standing at the doorway, handing back the essays to the students lined up at the door.

"Remember to get them signed." He said as the first student walked out the door. "I'll be checking!"

Eddie came and lined up right behind him.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't want you to get stuck in detention for a week too. Thanks for trying though."

"It's ok. Anything for a friend."

Eddie said it in a strange way – like he really meant it. Like he'd do anything, even give up his life for him. Daniel shook off the idea, since it was completely absurd.

"Too bad Old Bald Head hates me." He whispered back.

Eddie chuckled.

When it was Daniel's turn to get the essay, he tensed up a bit. The assignment was worth a lot of the final grade. If he failed this...oh god, he didn't know what he'd do.

To his surprise, Mr. Briggs said, "Nice improvement. But unfortunately, I had to change the B to a C."

Now Daniel knew he should be happy that he didn't fail, but he couldn't. Not when he knew he could have done better.

"But why, sir?"

"I specifically requested for the essay to be printed in size 12 font. However, you used size 14."

"But Mr. Briggs...I don't understand."

"What is there not to understand? You did not follow my explicit instructions about what I expected, so therefore, you lose marks."

"But a whole grade level for a font size? Isn't that a bit much?"

"I am the teacher! What I say goes! I do not need you two cents! Now off to the office and don't forget that you have detention after that."

Daniel shot a dirty look at the despicable excuse for a teacher and stormed out the door, not even bothering to wait for Eddie.

"Wait up, man!" Eddie yelled as he hobbled through the crowded hallway.

Daniel just ignored him and quickened his pace to the point where he was practically jogging. Eddie managed to catch up with Daniel by manoeuvring his wheelchair through the crowded hallway. He felt a hand grab his arm and stop him. He turned around to see Eddie with a look of confusion.

"Why are you so upset?" Eddie asked. "You didn't fail, right?"

"Yeah, but it's not fair!" Daniel complained. "He gave me a C when I clearly deserved a B!"

"Calm down, dude! Just chillax." Eddie said, patting him on the back. "No need to get so worked up over it."

"I mean what difference does it make if I printed it in size 12 or size 14?"

Eddie eyed him questioningly. "Why _did_ you print in size 14 in the first place?"

"To make it look longer so that he'll think I did more work and give me a higher mark." Daniel said. "Duh!"

"So you didn't actually write 1000 words?"

"Of course not! You think I'd waste my time doing that when I could be shooting hoops? Anyways, it's not like he was going to sit down and count the number of words I wrote."

Eddie chuckled like Daniel's irritation amused him. "No wonder your brilliant plan backfired."

"I have to go."

Daniel headed off to the principal's office as Eddie wheeled away. He walked straight past the secretary and entered the office. Mr. Matthews, the principal, was already waiting at his desk, mostly likely informed by Mr. Briggs that Daniel was on his way down. The principal gestured for Daniel to sit down.

Once they were settled in, Mr. Matthews began his usual grilling. "So Daniel, what trouble have you caused this time?"

"Mr. Briggs sent me here because I was talking during his lesson."

"I see." The principal replied. "And may I ask why you were talking during his lesson?"

"Because it was boring." Daniel said bluntly. "Anyways, we were talking about school, so I don't get what the big deal was."

The principal looked at him sceptically and said, "Mmmhmm. What else?"

"I got yelled at by Mrs. Doyle on Tuesday for getting another F on a test."

"Why did you fail the test?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"Because I didn't know the answers." Daniel said simply.

Mr. Matthews looked slightly annoyed. "Right. Next?"

"I got kicked out of the cafeteria yesterday for throwing my meatloaf at Asher's face."

"Why did you throw meatloaf at Asher's face?"

"It fell on the floor. I wasn't going to eat it!" Daniel explained. "Anyways, the annoying prick deserved it."

At that moment, the phone on the principal's desk rang. Mr. Matthews picked it up and answered the call. After the conversation was over, he let out an exasperated sigh and said, "I have to go deal with an incident. Just sit quietly and please _try_ not to break anything."

"No promises." Daniel replied quietly.

By the time the principal was back, Daniel had succeeded in jamming the principal's stapler and knocking over and shattering a porcelain vase full of flowers. Hopefully it wasn't an antique.

Mr. Matthews gave a disapproving look and said, "You're more trouble than you're worth."

Daniel started fiddling around with a rubix cube on the principal's desk. He was never going to be able to solve it, but it was a good distraction to shut out whatever Mr. Matthews was going to say next.

"What to do about you, Mr. Martinez?" The principal said as he paced back and forth in front of the desk. "You have caused too much trouble at this school. You've disrupted the peace. And you've have caused much financial damage to school property." Mr. Matthews paused and turned to face Daniel. "I'm afraid to say that if you don't get you act together, as much as I dislike this option, we'll have to take away your scholarship and expel you."

Daniel nearly fell backwards off his chair. He pulled himself together, placed the rubix cube back on the desk, and managed to stutter, "B-but sir, this is my last chance. If I blow this, my mom won't have anywhere else to put me."

"Then it is in your best interest not to waste it." Mr. Matthews replied coldly as he made his way out the door. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a staff meeting to attend."

Daniel stormed out the principal's office and practically shoved people aside in the hallway as he made his way to his locker. Maybe if he hurried, he could still get to his next class on time. Eddie was waiting in his wheelchair next to Daniel's locker. When he saw Daniel approach, he asked, "How did it go?"

Daniel didn't answer. He opened the lock in one yank, threw his books in, and slammed the door so hard that it recoiled and hit him in the face.

That was the last straw. His day had gone from good to awful in less than an hour. His boiling anger flowed over the edge and he took it out by punching the metal locker door. It hurt, but he felt satisfied once he saw the dent in the metal.

Eddie stood there, staring at him in shock. Daniel knew he got angry often, but never so much that Eddie couldn't cool him down. "W-what was that?"

"I got angry, ok? My day hasn't been so good."

"You still didn't tell me what happened in the principal's office. What did Mr. Matthews say?"

That was when Daniel realized that what he'd just done was the exact thing Mr. Matthews had told him to refrain from doing – if he wanted to stay in this school that is.

"Nothing other than the usual lecture." Daniel lied.

Eddie looked at Daniel suspiciously, obviously not believing him. If Eddie truly had any doubts about what Daniel had said, he didn't make them known. Nothing about the incident had been mentioned again, and Daniel was thankful for that.

"Just try to stay out of trouble for the rest of the day, ok?" Eddie told him.

Now you see, whenever anyone told Daniel to stay out of trouble, something bad always ended up happening. It was like those words were jinxed. He avoided doing anything that might be stupid or dangerous, but things still went wrong. For Eddie's sake, he agreed. Daniel was pretty confident that this time, he wasn't going to get into trouble.

He was so wrong about that.

You see, bad things always happened to him when he least expected them to. Like the time in the last year when they were working with chemicals in a science lab session. Somehow, Daniel had gotten his hands on some 'off limits' chemicals and accidentally mixed the wrong substances, creating a huge explosion that demolished the classroom. And the year before, in the fifth grade, when his social studies class went to a museum for a field trip, he somehow made a tree in the parking lot fall over and it crushed the school bus. It wasn't exactly his fault, but they expelled him anyways.

Sucks to be him, right?

And now he was once again on the verge of getting expelled, or at least earning himself another suspension. But being suspended – or even expelled – was nothing compared to the mess he was about to get into.

At lunch, in detention, Daniel was bored out of his mind. He hated that he couldn't even talk to Eddie even though they were in the same room and with Mr. Briggs watching him like a hawk, he wouldn't be able to discreetly pass a note. He turned to his right to find that there was a bookshelf with a row of identical textbooks. He took one out and tried to make out the title.

Ancient Greek Mythology: A Beginner's Guide to deities, Heroes, and creatures

Since he didn't have anything better to do, Daniel started to read the book. Sure it wasn't easy, and he had to wrestle with his dyslexia to understand the words, but the book had plenty of pictures in it. Surprisingly, he found that he already knew some of it from what he'd learned in school. After an hour, he was completely absorbed in the book. He read about the Olympian gods and goddesses, adventures of famous Greek heroes, and the monsters they fought. It wasn't until he heard a knock on the door of the classroom that his eyes left the pages.

The door opened and two girls stepped in. Daniel knew them. Camille and Natalie, they were both new students. They'd only come about a month ago. Both girls had their plaid uniform skirts hiked up so high, that they could barely be considered skirts anymore. As the girls walked into the room, they waved and smiled at him. This was the first and only time anyone at school – besides Eddie – had been friendly to him.

Camille, the brunette, walked towards Daniel and took a seat at the desk next to his. Daniel's nose wrinkled when he realized she smelled like a horse mixed with designer perfume. He hated horses and they hated him. It was a mutual hate-hate relationship. "Hey, Daniel!" She said in her sugary voice.

Thinking back, he should've got up and bolted from the room that very moment.

Instead, Daniel replied, "Hi Camille." Then he hesitated before asking, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, we're just here to help Mr. Briggs with some work." She replied sweetly, turning to the grouchy history teacher. "Isn't that right, sir?"

Suddenly, Daniel felt some sort of disruption in the air. It was hard to explain exactly what it was, but a strange feeling was definitely there.

Eddie shot him a nervous look. Daniel didn't understand what was going on.

The expression on Mr. Briggs' face morphed from crabbiness to confusion to friendliness. "Of course, certainly."

"So," Natalie, the blonde one said, "What are you reading?"

A part of Daniel wondered why these two very pretty, and quite popular girls were talking to a loser like him. At this school, where everyone looked like an Abercrombie model and was on their way to Harvard since preschool, Daniel didn't stand a chance at being accepted into the 'popular' group or even be considered normal. The other part of him (the shallow part) was like 'time to score!'

"A book on Greek mythology." Daniel replied.

"How _interesting_." She said glancing down at the page he turned to.

"I have to go run off some photocopies...I think." Mr. Briggs said as if he were unsure about it. "I'll be back in a few minutes...probably."

As Mr. Briggs left the classroom, Eddie became even more anxious and began rolling his wheelchair back and forth. Daniel didn't get what Eddie was so tense about. He was glad that Mr. Briggs had left so that they could finally have some fun in here.

"We have to go too." Eddie said quickly, as he tugged on Daniel's sleeve. "Our time is over. It's been an hour."

"Oh, no." Camille said. "You can't leave yet." Daniel noticed that she looked a bit paler than usual.

"It's too soon." Natalie agreed. "We haven't even had a chance to enjoy ourselves yet."

Daniel shrugged Eddie's arm off his shoulder. "Yeah dude. Let's stay a while. It's not like we have anything better to do."

Looking back, Daniel felt like slapping himself. Maybe, if he'd listened to Eddie, and left when he was told to, he could have avoided all the pain and toil that he had gone through. But at that time, all Daniel cared about was the fact that for the first time in his life, two extremely attractive girls were flirting with him.

"Daniel, you don't under – "

Natalie cut Eddie off. "How about we get started with the party?"

"Certainly." Camille almost hissed in agreement. Something about her voice made Daniel feel uncomfortable. The two girls had an almost insane glint in their eyes – a bloodthirsty hunger.

Their hair began to change to the colour of rust, the smell of horses got stronger. Daniel noticed that their right legs got hairy and their left legs were started to shine as if they were made of some kind of precious metal.

Natalie, the blonde, came forward and grabbed him by the shirt. Daniel grabbed the edge of the desk behind him, leaning as far away from the girl as possible.

He'd got a very bad feeling in his gut – an instinct of dread and doom to come.

"Actually, I just remembered that I uh...I have to go um – "

"Do not try to evade me, half-blood!" Natalie rasped. "You will not escape...alive."

Daniel shot Eddie a panicked look.

His friend mouthed one word in response – _run_.

Daniel wished more than anything that he could, but he was in no situation to be able to do that. Camille was starting to approach him as well. He looked helplessly at Eddie, begging for help now that he realized that there was something truly dark and evil about the girls. But Eddie wasn't any more capable of doing something than Daniel was.

Then Eddie spoke four words that saved Daniel's life. "Look in your pocket."

Daniel desperately searched through his pocket and found...a Sharpie. So that was it. A permanent marker. The object of immense power that would get him out of this alive. What was he supposed to do with it? Ink them to death?

Natalie reached out, trying to grab the marker. Daniel pushed her away. She stumbled and crashed into a desk.

Clang.

Her leg made a hollow, metallic sound.

Suddenly, the girls' hair combusted spontaneously, burning so hot that Daniel could feel the searing heat despite not being in contact with the flames. He looked at down their legs to find that one was the leg of some sort of barnyard animal, and the other was made of polished bronze. He looked back up to see their chalk white faces, razor sharp fangs, and blood-red eyes.

Daniel looked at Eddie who was slowly backing away from the demons. The frightened expression on his face was enough to tell Daniel that Eddie was seeing the same thing he was.

"You have no idea how long we've been waiting." Camille hissed.

"But now," Natalie said, her voice harsh and rough. "We will feast on your blood."

"B-back off." He stuttered.

"Tsk, tsk." Camille chided. "How rude, being so hostile, when all we wanted to do was have a little _fun_."

Then, without hesitation, Daniel did the only thing that made any sense – he uncapped the marker. To his utter shock, it grew to a metre long blade of shiny bronze – a sword.

Natalie's form shimmered as she inched closer. Switching between pretty popular girl and demon monster. It was difficult to keep focus. "Now, now, let's not go to such extremes. How about a kiss instead?"

Daniel was so terrified, he almost wanted to agree, but one look from Eddie told him that cooperation wasn't an option. He backed away, holding the Sharpie sword out in front of him defensively.

"You know," Natalie said. "We never wanted it to be this way. But due to your lack of enthusiasm we're going to have to...take some measures."

Daniel shuddered. To him, 'taking measures' sounded like an extremely painful torture. He was paralyzed in fear. Natalie reached up into the flames on her head and removed from it a ball of fire.

Now was the time. He had to do something. It was that or getting killed.

Daniel searched the room for Eddie, desperate for help. His friend had managed to wheel himself behind the teacher's desk.

"I can't help you" Eddie said. "Sorry."

Great. So he was alone. Outnumbered two to one, inexperienced, and completely petrified.

Apparently, his time to make a move was up. Natalie flung the fireball with surprisingly good aim. Daniel managed to dodge it. He felt a rush of adrenaline after being attacked. His senses heightened. Every movement was clearer, every sound was more defined. A sudden confidence crept into him. He charged at Natalie with his sword held out and eyes squeezed shut. He didn't know the monster was dead until he felt a sprinkling of a power-like substance on his face and a scream from Camille.

"You killed my colleague!" she bellowed. "You will pay for this treason!"

Camille was baring her fangs and growling the way an angry dog would. She looked almost comical as she clunked forward on those mismatched legs, still wearing the Castle Heights uniform. But Daniel couldn't laugh – not when he was facing imminent death.

"What do you want from me anyways?" Daniel asked shakily as the monster approached him. "I'll give you what you want if you let me live."

Camille stopped dead in her tracks. "A peace treaty? Hmm, I never thought of that as a possible approach. You see, what I and my decapitated ally want from you is information."

"About what?" Daniel asked.

"The Fates have informed me and all of Hecate's other minions that you are one of the demigods who hold the answer to why our mistress was kidnapped, where she is, and how to get her back."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Daniel said with disbelief. "The Fates? Hecate? Who's she? Who are _you_?"

"Hecate is the all-powerful Greek goddess of magic, and I am her devoted servant." Camille replied. "And I see that talking things out is obviously not going to work. So prepare you meet your end, half-blood!"

"That's not going to happen." Daniel barely believed himself as he said it. "I'm going to kill you first."

"Highly unlikely. Even if you do, it doesn't matter. I'll be back sooner or later to – "

Daniel took the opportunity to run her through with his sword. Camille exploded into dust like her colleague had earlier.

Daniel flopped down on a chair, exhausted. "Wow, she's a real big mouth."

"You okay?" Eddie asked, coming out of his hideout.

"Yeah. I'm pretty good." Daniel answered. "A few cuts, nothing too serious."

"I can't believe you managed to take both of them down."

"Neither can I." Daniel replied. "But I have to give them some credit for being incredibly stupid."

Eddie laughed but quickly stopped. "Daniel, you do know how serious this is, right? Those were empousai, servants of Hecate. They're incredibly dangerous. I'm surprised their charmspeak didn't affect you."

"Why are they after me?" Daniel asked, not quite sure about what all of this meant.

"Because you're a demigod." Eddie said.

Demigod. That was what Camille had called him. But demigods were the offspring of humans and gods. He couldn't be...

Daniel felt suspicion rise in him. "How do you know so much about the monsters?" he asked Eddie. "How do you know that I'm a – a – "

"Demigod?" Eddie offered. "Because...well...I think it would be better if I showed you."

Then, as if Daniel's day hadn't been weird enough, Eddie actually _stood up _from his wheel chair, and started taking his pants off.

"Woah, woah!" Daniel said waving his hands in front of him. "What the heck are you doing?"

"My job." Eddie replied casually as he unbuttoned his jeans.

"But you just..." Daniel was at a loss for words.

"Got out of my wheelchair which I definitely don't need anymore." Eddie slipped out of his pants revealing a pair of furry legs that resembled the kind that the empousai had.

Instead of giving an intelligible response, Daniel mumbled, "Wait? You're half-donkey?"

"No!" Eddie said, like he had just been gravely insulted. "I'm half-goat."

"And that means..."

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch.

"It means I'm a satyr who has been sent to protect you. You're not hallucinating. This is all real." Eddie explained. "But we don't have time for lengthy explanations right now. I need to take you to camp."

"No. Just wait one second." Daniel held up a hand gesturing for Eddie to stop. "You're a what? And who sent you to protect me? And you need to take me where?"

Eddie sighed as he put on his pants and began limping (or clopping) to the door. "C'mon, Daniel. We need to talk to your mom."


	5. Daniel IV

**DANIEL WAS COMPLETELY SHELLSHOCKED. **He had just gone through what was possibly the most traumatic experience of his life. He had just witnessed two pretty girls turn into hideous monsters and found out that his best friend was part goat. At this point, he had deemed himself crazy. He followed Eddie down the crowded Toronto streets, falling behind often because he was so distracted by what had just happened.

"Come on Daniel, we've got to hurry!" Eddie shouted back at him.

Daniel just stood there.

"Now! COME ON!" Eddie yelled louder.

Daniel scrambled to his side and asked, "Hey, can you tell me what's going on?"

Eddie ignored the question. "Don't trust anyone. Don't look at anybody, don't talk to anybody, ok? Just keep walking!"

Now if there was one thing Daniel didn't like, it was being bossed around. "Who the heck are you to tell me what to do?"

Eddie came to a halt at the bus stop. "You've got to listen to me and do as I say. I'm your protector."

"Wait, wait, hold on." Daniel stopped next to him. "My protector? Are you kidding? Maybe you're not seeing what I'm seeing. You walking with a limp and were in a freaking wheelchair five minutes ago!"

"Look, when I took this job, I swore an oath that I would sacrifice my life for your safety." Eddie explained, trying to subdue Daniel's red hot anger. "It's my duty to protect you. It's what I'm meant for."

Daniel still wasn't satisfied with the answer. "What are you talking about? What's going on?"

Eddie simply replied, "I can't tell you."

And just like that, Eddie killed the possibility of any open conversation.

They caught a bus to Daniel's neighborhood and a very tense half an hour later, they arrived at the front door and Eddie rang the doorbell. Daniel's mom opened the door.

Now a few things you should know about his mom. Her name was Valencia Martinez and she was the most wonderful woman in the world. She has dark brown hair and the prettiest emerald green eyes that Daniel was lucky to inherit. Her childhood was pretty normal except for the fact that her family moved to a different city every few years. She said it was because of her dad's work.

She was halfway through her degree in teaching when _he_ came into the picture. Daniel didn't like to refer to him as his 'father' or his 'dad' because he hadn't been like one to him. He'd never even met him. Basically, the dude met Daniel's mom, wooed her, and then left when he found out she was pregnant. What kind of jerk does that? Luckily, Daniel's grandparents helped her out, but their support disappeared when they died in a car crash when Daniel was four. His mom had to quit her education and work two jobs a day in order to provide herself and Daniel with a decent enough life so that child services wouldn't take him away.

"Hey Valencia?" Eddie said as they barged into the house. "We need to talk."

Ok, that was weird. Since when were they on first name basis? It was like they already knew each other. Daniel's mom took one look at Eddie and immediately said, "Oh no."

"Will someone please tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

"We don't have time for this right now!" Eddie insisted.

"It's time for him to go, isn't it?" Daniel's mom said ruefully.

Eddie nodded. "He needs to leave now. Like right now."

Daniel's mom seemed to know exactly what Eddie was talking about because she grabbed the car keys and dashed for their silver Volvo.

"Ok, what is happening?" Daniel asked, frustrated, as Eddie shoved him into the car. "Why won't you tell me anything?"

"The more you know, the more danger I put you in." Eddie explained. "And right now, I can't afford that. We have to get you to camp."

"Can you at least tell me where you're taking me? What is this camp you keep talking about?"

"It's called Camp Half-Blood, and it's in Long Island, New York. We have to get you there as soon as possible."

What the heck did Eddie mean when he said 'half-blood'? Did that mean that the people at this camp only have half as much blood in their bodies?

Eddie began explaining to Daniel's mom what had happened earlier.

Daniel sighed and just gave up completely. He couldn't handle this. He didn't want to. He just wanted to start this day all over again and pretend like none of this had ever happened. He closed his eyes and curled up into a ball. He didn't look up until he heard his mother's voice.

"Daniel? _Cariño_, are you okay?" She asked. "You didn't get hurt, right?"

"I'm fine, mom." He replied. "At least physically."

"I know this is a lot for you to handle." She said softly. "But someday, everything will make sense."

"Really? When?" Daniel insisted, crossing his arms. "Today, tomorrow, ten years from now? When?"

"Soon, Daniel." She replied. "Very soon."

"Mom, do you know what's happening and why it's happening?" He asked.

His mother didn't respond.

"Mom?"

After a painfully long silence, she replied. "Yes, I do. It has to do with your father."

"Could you, possibly...tell me?" He asked, being very careful with his words. Daniel didn't know a lot about his father. Partly because he was uninterested and partly because his mom's emotional cliffs tended to crumble like the walls of Troy whenever he asked her about him.

He looked at his mom's face. She seemed to be holding in many emotions behind her stony expression. "Your father was unlike any man I've ever met, Daniel. He was..." Her voice faltered and Daniel knew she couldn't go on.

"Nevermind, mom. I don't want to know if it has anything to do with him."

The remainder of the ride to the airport was spent in solemn silence. Daniel didn't like it. It made him feel like they were driving to his own funeral. The truth was that Daniel was scared. He didn't know what was waiting for him there. He couldn't look at a person and not wonder whether they were a monster. Daniel didn't know what was real anymore.

At the airport, his mom bought the tickets with money that Eddie gave to her. Their flight was in half an hour but they still had security to go through before boarding.

His mom hugged him. "Be safe." She said. "You won't be able to contact me, so just promise me that you'll try to come back."

Daniel didn't show it, but his mom was freaking him out. She spoke like he was accepting his own death sentence by going to New York.

"I will mom." He replied. "I promise."

His mom gave him one last kiss on the cheek before Eddie dragged him off to security.

Daniel was worried that they would get in trouble for the permanent marker-sword thingy. He was relieved after they got through, because if airport security found out they were smuggling weapons on to the plane...oh, he didn't want to know what would happen and more importantly, how he'd get out of that one.

On the plane, he mostly stared out the window and ate food. Daniel was rarely ever stressed but whenever he was, he would resort to either eating nonstop, or if there was no food around, biting his nails. He tried to clear his mind in hopes of possibly falling asleep (like Eddie had managed to do five minutes into the flight), but he had no luck. His focus jumped between small things like the colour of the carpeting to what the woman in front of him was saying to her daughter. It was times like these when he really hated his ADHD.

Once they landed, Daniel's mind turned to the earlier events of that day and what all of that meant for him. The monster – empousa, Eddie had called her – she said something about Daniel being the answer to the disappearance of her mistress, who was apparently also a Greek goddess. But Daniel was certain that he had never heard about the goddess Hecate until today. So how was he to be blamed? Also, both the empousa and Eddie had called him a demigod. But demigods were the invincible golden-boys of Greek mythology, like Perseus, Theseus, and the most honoured of all – Hercules. Daniel couldn't be like them, could he?

But despite his doubts, Daniel got into the taxi with Eddie and drove off to this Camp Half-Blood place that was supposedly the answer to all his questions.

"So, this place is for..."

"People like you." Eddie replied.

"You mean people who think they can see monsters, and barnyard animals with human bodies on top?"

"Bla-ha-ha-ha!" Eddie bleated angrily, scowling at him scarily, which only confirmed Daniel's suspicions that he was a crazy psycho who was out to get him. "I'm not a barnyard animal or a human! I'm a satyr. Get your facts straight!"

"Fine! Jeez..." Daniel just said that so that Eddie would shut up. He actually had no clue what a satyr was.

"And you don't _think_ you can see me." Eddie said matter-of-factly. "You actually _can_ see me."

"Did you put something in my cheeseburger on the plane?" Daniel asked. "Like maybe, magic mushrooms?"

"NO!" Eddie barked.

Daniel decided that this was a good time to end the conversation.

After a couple more minutes, the taxi dropped them at the foot of a hill in front of a sign that said Delphi Strawberry Farm. They stepped out of the car and paid the driver.

"We're here." said Eddie.

"Where exactly is _here_?" Daniel asked.

Before Eddie had a chance to answer, a shrill scream echoed through the woods.

"W-what was that?" Daniel stuttered.

Eddie looked equally as terrified. "I don't know."

Reluctantly, the two began running up the hill to see what had happened. As the camp entrance came into view, Daniel saw girl armed with a bow guarding two unarmed girls against a squadron of skeleton soldiers. He was going to go help but he was interrupted by a deep, rumbling growl.

His eyes widened as he saw the beast emerge from the greenery. "What is _that_?"

The massive black _thing_ pounced at Daniel. Now when he said it was big, he meant that it was enormous – roughly the size of a baby elephant. He felt crushed under its weight and struggled to get away. When he finally managed to get out of its grip, he got a good look at the monster. It looked like an oversized bloodhound with a bad case of rabies.

"What the hell is _that_?" He yelled to Eddie.

"Hellhound!" Eddie shrieked.

"What do I do?"

Eddie was now in extreme panic mode, hyperventilating and running around in circles. "I dunno, kill it or something! You're the hero here."

The _hero_? Had Eddie gone mental? Daniel could barely keep himself from fainting of fear. His knees were shaking and he could hardly hold the weight of his sword. He was exhausted, he was scared, and he was completely clueless. He didn't know how he was going to kill the third monster he had encountered in less than a day, or – more importantly – whether or not he would survive this time.


	6. Priya V

**PRIYA WAS HIDING OUT IN THE WOODS FROM HER LATEST PURSUERS.** The dracanae had been chasing her for days. For some strange reason, they kept coming back no matter how many times she killed them, and each time there seemed to be more of them.

Priya knew she wasn't going to last much longer. Her arms and legs were cut and bruised pretty badly and she was almost sure that her right arm was broken. To add onto that, Priya had barely slept in the last three days. Every night, she'd climb a tree, cling onto one of the branches and fall asleep. A few hours later, she'd be woken by the sounds of the dracanae who weren't very good at being silent. She also hadn't eaten much in the last few days. The last thing she'd had was a couple of stale saltine crackers the night before. Not exactly the healthy, balanced meal you should be having when fighting off vicious snake women.

Leading the dracanae was a spectre-woman that Priya could not identify. The woman – or rather, spirit – was made of thin wisps of darkness that seemed to be shadows. Priya shuddered at the thought of the yellow slit-like eyes, long, spindly fingers, and gleaming, white fangs. Unwillingly, Priya recalled her first encounter with the monster.

"Tell me where my mistress is!" The spectre-woman demanded. "For if you do not, I shall tear apart your throat and feed on your blood."

"I told you already!" Priya yelled. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Do not try to lie to me." The monster's voice was cold and harsh, a horrible ancient sound like metal scraping against rock. "The Fates have informed me that you are the answer to Hecate's disappearance, as well as the only way to bring my mistress back. Now surrender or forever hold your silence!"

Priya shivered in fear as she remembered the initial confrontation. All she knew about these monsters was that they weren't looking to kill her, but rather that they wanted something from her. Priya had no clue what they were talking about, but from what she understood, they were minions of the Greek goddess Hecate, and they were seeking information about her disappearance, and Priya, for some reason, was being condemned as responsible for all of this.

Priya shook the thoughts from her mind and focused on what was important. Finding a decent shelter where she could dress her wounds and spend the night. It was getting dark and not having a safe resting place would mean certain death. The forest wasn't Priya's first choice of a hiding place. It was too close to home for comfort. But for some reason, it was harder for them to find her when she was in the woods. Anyways, she was too worn out to risk being out in the open where she could easily be found.

Another benefit of staying in the wild was that she could have some privacy and avoid getting the strange looks from the normal people in the cities. They looked at her like she was some sort of deranged runaway animal – a few times, they even called the Children's Aid Society and Priya had to make a run for it before they got hold of her. The last thing she wanted was to go back to staying in foster homes with families she didn't like, getting bullied at rough schools, and the most dreaded part of all – seeing the 'therapist' who was supposed to help her but instead ended up adding 'crazy lunatic' to the list comprising of only ADHD. They wouldn't believe her when she said she could see monsters since they couldn't see them. Priya figured that there must have been some sort of magical camoflauge that prevented normal people from seeing the true form of monsters and gods. Sometimes, the force was strong enough to fool her too, and that led to some very close calls.

Priya had been in some pretty bad situations in the previous years, like when she was chased by monsters to the middle of nowhere and left with no food or water and only her knife. Survival was like second nature to her, so she managed to get by. But this was like nothing she'd ever experienced. Before, the monsters would stay dead once she'd killed them – at least for a significant amount of time – but now they kept coming back as if they'd been automatically resurrected.

Her stomach suddenly growled. Absentmindedly trawling through the forest for hours sure could work up her appetite. Priya checked her stores to find a stale, half-eaten piece of bread that had was starting to grow mould and a handful of saltine crackers. She grumbled in disappointment as she devoured a cracker.

Oh how she'd love to eat something nice for a change. Something not stale or mouldy. Like some fresh fruit. Priya sighed, finished the remainder of her crackers, and got her few possessions together. It was time to get on the move – unless she was looking to be monster lunch. After only taking a few steps, she saw a bush, not just any bush – a _raspberry _bush. Today was her lucky day. She walked over to the bush and began picking off berries and popping them into her mouth. They were sweet too – added bonus. It was as if the forest had read her mind and responded accordingly. After eating enough berries to soothe her starving stomach, Priya took a handful with her for later.

Priya heard crunching of fallen twigs and branches. Her internal monster-detecting radar was flashing red lights and making whirring sounds.

She groaned. Not again.

But as she listened more closely, she realized that it wasn't the sound of the slithering dracanae – it was the sound of footsteps. Whatever monster this was, it definitely did not understand the concept of stealth. The snapping of wooden sticks got louder as the creature approached. Priya made out a shadowy figure – definitely human, but then again, monsters sometimes disguised themselves as humans.

She unsheathed her knife and braced herself for the attack. But it never came. Instead, a teenage boy, much older than her, emerged from the foliage. He seemed normal in every way, except for the fact that he walked with a limp and used a large branch as a walking stick.

"Who are you?" Priya demanded, extending her knife towards the guy.

"Hey...pleased to meet you. I'm Grover." The guy said, offering a handshake as if they had met at a party rather than in the middle of the forest.

Priya didn't reply or let her guard down.

Grover cautiously eyed her knife. "Do you mind putting that dagger away? It's easier to talk knowing that you aren't going to shish kebab me."

"How do you know I'm not going to?" Priya knew she was being really hostile, but over the years, she'd learned not to trust _anyone_.

Grover sighed as he lowered his hand. "Look, I'm here to...help you. I'm not an enemy. I'm not...one of _them_."

Priya loosened up a bit after hearing that, but there was still no way she was going to put her dagger away. This guy could still be a monster. They always had clever, unsuspecting disguises and most tried to sweet talk her into letting her defenses down. A couple of times, that had almost gotten her killed.

"What do you want?" She demanded.

"Look, you're not normal." Grover said.

Priya rolled her eyes. "You're telling me."

"I knew ever since I saw you fighting those dracanae outside that convenience store week ago." He continued. "Ever since I saw your blade."

Priya tensed up when she heard that he's been following her. In her mind, that was very monster-like behaviour. "What do you mean?"

"Look, I can't risk putting you in more danger, so I can't tell you what I mean. But you've got to come with me."

Priya didn't think she could be in any more danger at the moment. There was at least half a dozen dracanae hunting her being led by a shadowy ghost-woman, she was severely sleep deprived, and pretty badly injured. That meant that if this guy didn't explain fast, she was going to lose her cool. Not that it would matter. She wasn't in the state to instigate a fight. Priya couldn't use her dagger that well with her left hand, and her right was not in working condition.

"And why should I trust you?" She asked defensively, keeping her knife in front of her. If this was a trap, it wasn't going to work.

"Look, you know that you're not normal." Grover replied. "Monsters stalking you isn't normal."

"Well it is for me." Priya replied. "I've been fighting them off since I was seven."

"And the fact that you're still surviving isn't normal." He pointed out.

"Your point is?" She asked.

"You're not exactly...human, at least not completely." Grover explained. "You're special, and there's a place for kids like you. I can take you there."

This sparked Priya's curiosity. She lowered her knife slightly and asked, "Are you like me?"

"No. But I'm not a monster either. I'm on your side." Grover extended his arm, once again offering her a hand. "I'm trying to help you, but I can only do that if you let me."

"So this is an offer?" Priya asked. "I have the choice to go with you or stay here?"

"Honestly, it's for your own good." He answered. "Over there, you would be safe from the monsters. They could heal your wounds. Provide food, water, a place to stay – whatever it is you need."

Priya gave this some thought. Here she was, exhausted, injured, still quite hungry, and being hunted by undying monsters. The idea of a safe haven like that was too tempting of an offer to decline. After all, she hadn't slept in a real bed in the last five years. It had been ages since she'd interacted with other kids her age. Priya had her doubts, but Grover didn't seem like the kind of guy who'd attack her.

"Ok then." She sheathed her dagger. "I'll go with you."

"That's great!" Grover exclaimed. "Let's – "

"But don't try to pull any tricks. I've still got this." Priya warned as she gestured to her sheathed weapon. "And I know how to use it."

Grover gulped. "No funny business." He confirmed.

"Wait." Priya said, holding up a hand. "Where exactly is this place?"

"Long Island, New York." Grover said.

"And how exactly are we going to get there? I have no money."

"I've got something in mind." He replied. "We need to hurry and get you away from those dracanae as soon as possible. We'll figure something out on the move."

Priya nodded. She followed Grover through the forest. Priya kept wondering why he walked that way. Finally, they came to the side of a road.

"So what now?" Priya asked. They hadn't discussed anything during their walk.

"You're in bad condition and my healing magic isn't too good. I need to get you there as soon as possible. Going by car or plane wouldn't be fast enough, so I'm going to try something I've been experimenting with for a while."

Grover pulled out an instrument that looked very familiar. Priya remembered she'd seen it in a book she once read. Panpipes, that's what they were. Grover began playing them, an ancient sounding tune that occasionally mixed in with something that sounded like teen pop. Slowly, the air in front of them began to shimmer and the image of a large pine tree on a hill appeared.

Grover finished the song and opened his eyes. "Brilliant! It worked."

"What worked?"

"I made a portal." He said as if it were the most obvious thing to do in a situation like this. "Now walk into it."

"I am _not_ doing that!" Priya replied stubbornly.

"You have any better ideas?" Grover shot back, glancing towards the portal uneasily, as if he himself wasn't too sure it would work.

Priya considered this for a moment. She really didn't have any other choice.

"Fine." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she stepped through the portal.


End file.
